AMD has announced that its Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series processors, which were released last month, will receive performance improvements with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 24H2 update. This announcement comes after tests conducted after the launch of the Zen 5 processors revealed that they were not achieving the expected performance levels. The update aims to significantly improve gaming performance in particular.
The Ryzen 9000 series processors were introduced by AMD with great expectations at launch. However, in hardware reviews, these processors did not fully deliver the promised performance. Especially when compared to the previous-generation Ryzen 9 7950X processors, the performance increase of the new Ryzen 9 9950X was quite limited. For example, a review by Hardware Unboxed observed that in a 13-game test at 1080p resolution and with an RTX 4090 graphics card, the 9950X offered only a 1 percent performance increase over the 7950X. In productivity applications, this difference was only 3 percent. This situation has led to increased criticism questioning the value of the Ryzen 9000 series.
Performance improvements expected with Windows 11 24H2 update
Following speculation that a bug in the current version of Windows 11 could be the root of the performance issues, AMD has announced that it is working with Microsoft to release an optimized update for Zen 5 processors. With this update, AMD-specific branch prediction codes will be optimized in the 24H2 version of Windows 11, which should improve the performance of the processors. According to AMD, this improvement will have the biggest impact on Zen 5 processors, but will also provide performance gains on Zen 4 and Zen 3-based processors.
AMD, Far Cry 6 In its game, the company estimates that the Ryzen 9 9950X processor will perform 13 percent better than the previous version of Windows after the 24H2 update. Similarly, a 7 percent performance increase is expected in Cyberpunk 2077. This level of improvement, achieved with a single Windows update, is considered quite significant, especially in terms of gaming performance.
AMD’s Zen 5 processors were criticized when they were released, especially for not meeting expectations in terms of gaming performance. AMD aims to alleviate the criticism a little with this update. However, whether the Windows 11 24H2 update will really provide the expected performance increase will be clarified with new tests to be conducted after the update. In particular, the effect of this update on Zen 4 and Zen 3 processors is also a matter of curiosity.
AMD claims that the Ryzen 9000 series is not limited to gaming performance alone, but also offers leading performance in areas such as content creation, productivity, and artificial intelligence applications. The extent to which performance increases, especially for gaming enthusiasts, will be an important factor that will determine the success of this series.